Chatham News

CHATHAM – Town officials have asked Congressman William Keating to refile legislation to define the western boundary of the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge.
In September Keating filed a bill to reverse the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's claim to between 3,000 and 4,000 acres of submerged lands in Nantucket Sound west of the refuge. But the legislation expired when the last Congress adjourned and has to be f...

CHATHAM – The value of commercial shellfish landed in town grew last year, but officials are concerned that the shifting sands along the east coast could make the most productive areas inaccessible.
The 7 percent increase in the value of the catch is based on a per-pound price assigned by the state division of marine fisheries, according to Shellfish Constable Renee Gagne. Chatham's numbers are probably a bit ...

CHATHAM – Legend has it that it was the late boatyard owner Skip Hall who gave Paul Lucas the nickname Captain Eelgrass. The fisherman's boat, is seems, was notorious for the amount of sea vegetation that clung to its hull.
It was in 1983 that the name gained notoriety after a cooking fire nearly burned down Mr. Lucas' house. Friends took an ad in the newspaper for the “Captain Eelgrass Cooking School” featuri...

CHATHAM — Driven by personnel costs, and particularly overtime expenses, the town's public safety budget requests are up 5.92 percent over the current year's spending plan.
The police and fire department budgets make up the majority of the $6.18 million request, though the figure also includes the animal control officer, emergency management, oil pollution control and a contribution to the Cape and Islands e...

Superintendent Scott Carpenter has presented his draft fiscal 2018 spending plan for the Monomoy Regional School District, including an operating budget that's up nearly 5.5 percent over the current budget.
The $38,115,065 draft spending plan includes a $35.5 million operating budget, plus $2.6 million in debt service and $305,000 in capital expenses. All tolled, it would be a 4.8 percent increase over this ye...

Some elementary school students could be boarding buses before 7 a.m. under new starting times announced by the Monomoy Regional School District.
Last spring, the school committee endorsed the change, which shifts elementary school start times earlier and moves middle and high school times back. At the committee's meeting last Thursday Superintendent of Schools Scott Carpenter announced specific start times fo...

CHATHAM — Saying he will not be silenced by critics, Seth Taylor intends to seek a second term on the board of selectmen in May.
“I believe that the public debate demands that we have as much information and as many points of view expressed as possible,” he said. Taylor said he will take out nomination papers shortly after they become available next Monday.
Taylor said his role on the board of selectmen i...

CHATHAM – Several town employees handed out leaflets and wore placards outside of last week's special town meeting to draw attention to the fact that they've been without a contract for nearly two years.
“We just want people to know the truth,” said Chatham Municipal Employees Association President Gary J. Kaser, who also picketed outside last Tuesday's board of selectmen's meeting.
“Bottom line...this affe...

CHATHAM — Rounding out this year's list of projects seeking Community Preservation Act funding are preservation projects at the Chatham Marconi Maritime Center and various recreation projects, including a pickleball court.
The community preservation committee will now begin debating the merits of the dozen different applications, which total more than $615,000. Having already heard presentations on several r...

CHATHAM – Selectman Amanda Love's recent email may have violated the Open Meeting Law, but it also drew attention to the fact that there's only two months to go before Fire Chief Michael Ambriscoe retires.
In the email she sent to fellow selectmen, Love asked for a board discussion of promoting Deputy Chief Peter Connick to the chief's job, saying that the town needs to show staff how much they are valued by h...

CHATHAM – A state Land Court justice has ruled in favor of the town in a suit brought by Chatham Bars Inn over the 2014 taking of an easement at the fish pier.
The suit involved the terms of a 1956 deed from the inn which gave the town ownership of a 7,130-square-foot parcel south of the fish pier packing building, at the Shore Road facility's lower level, an area known as the south jog. CBI claimed use of the...

“Chatham is the cradle of aviation,” says John Brown, the author of a new book called “Gustave Whitehead and the Wright Brothers: Who Flew First?”
Brown came to this conclusion after he studied late 19 th century experiments in glider flight in Chatham that he says led directly to one of the experimenters being the first to fly in a motor-powered aircraft.
Brown is a native of Australia living in Germany. ...